Support Playtime Tracking for Non-Steam Game

[SuitableFish]

I'm sure this has been suggested before but I figured I'd bring it to light nonetheless.

I love using Steam as a hub for my games. Unfortunately, many games are not available on Steam either due to exclusivity deals or expired licensing (in the case of older games). Luckily, I am able to add these games to Steam and customize their appearance so they fit in with the rest of my Steam collection. Although these entries lack many of Steam's features, most of these omissions are understandable. One such omission, however, stands out: playtime tracking.

Currently, Steam can recognize that you are playing a non-Steam game and will even tell your friends the name of said game. Unfortunately, Steam does not complete the seemingly simple task of tracking the time you've spent playing that game. What I am suggesting is for Steam to simply track this value and store it client-side. The numeral could even be manually adjusted so players could "transfer" their hours from other platforms or previous Steam installations.

This would encourage people to use Steam as a hub for all of their games. Thus, they would be more likely to buy on Steam when given the chance since that's where their collection is.

I hope this suggestion reaches someone who understands my grievance and take it to heart.

[Prfx]

Start_Running eredeti hozzászólása:

Because none of that actually costs any resources on their part and actually opens up their market reach. Tracking playtime. would require them to actually use their resources to record that data.

Wouldn't say so. Allowing players add non-steam games, allowing to use steam overlay and running big picture isn't costly at all, but maintaining support for all the vr headsets and possible controllers costs at least somewhat to them.

And even more, running lots of CDN's to allow millions of people download games, and giving developers the ability to use steam servers to host multiplayer games for free costs Valve hundreds of thousands times more than running one more DB for storing peoples' time played.

And as have already been stated, the OP said about storing the playtime locally on player's pc, and not on Valve's servers, so possibly this feature would be almost free to implement for them in comparison

[Melodia]

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Screenshot and guides are conveniences I am sure a lot of people enjoy.

We're literally asking for a 'convenience a lot of people enjoy'. How is it different?

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Nx Machina eredeti hozzászólása:

Playtime = refund policy.

But displayed playtime isn't tracked properly in Offline Mode but the refund-relevant playtime is still tracked. So these are separate features.

[Thermal Lance]

Quint the Alligator Snapper eredeti hozzászólása:

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Screenshot and guides are conveniences I am sure a lot of people enjoy. Those are added benefits to Steam and we should be glad to even have the option.

Would it be nice to have completely irrelevant playtime added? Sure. But, it is indeed an added data to track and unlike playtime of games actually sold on the platform, it benefits absolutely nobody from a monetary standpoint.

For me it's a "nice to have" objectively but if I was going to be honest about it, I personally think it's an irrelevant data.

Sure, yeah, it's irrelevant, but then why does Steam even bother letting people add non-Steam games and not only that but also use other Steam features with them (e.g. Steam Overlay and screenshot hotkey)?

It's not necessary, of course, but it's also not that big of an ask to have the Steam client also track playtime locally for that non-Steam game. And that'd be even less (in the sense of "none") server load than hosting screenshots from non-Steam games.

Letting people launch non-steam game costs them nothing as Steam is also a launcher of sort. It's not a feature that is exactly hard to implement plus it adds to the convenience Steam is known for.

Recording playtime a game out of Steam is just useless really. And if it done client side it dosent take a genius to know what people will do with it. The less ground for arguments the better imo.

[Melodia]

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

And if it done client side it dosent take a genius to know what people will do with it.

I guess I'm dumb then. What will they do with it?

[Thermal Lance]

Melodia eredeti hozzászólása:

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

And if it done client side it dosent take a genius to know what people will do with it.

I guess I'm dumb then. What will they do with it?

What's the point of tracking time if somebody can just change it in 2 seconds and pretend to be a 10,000 hours veteran in Doom?

[Melodia]

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

What's the point of tracking time if somebody can just change it in 2 seconds and pretend to be a 10,000 hours veteran in Doom?

Ok and....who cares?

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Letting people launch non-steam game costs them nothing as Steam is also a launcher of sort. It's not a feature that is exactly hard to implement plus it adds to the convenience Steam is known for.

The same can be said of playtime tracking, frankly.

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Melodia eredeti hozzászólása:

I guess I'm dumb then. What will they do with it?

What's the point of tracking time if somebody can just change it in 2 seconds and pretend to be a 10,000 hours veteran in Doom?

And people can already idle Steam games indefinitely anyway. And that's for Steam games!

It's rather pointless to design around this very particular and very insignificant issue. Playtime for a non-Steam game wouldn't even be used for anything -- especially if it isn't even displayed server-side meaning that it's not even on people's profiles. What are people gonna do, screenshot their own Steam client saying they have 10,000 hours in Doom? That's the most unconvincing "evidence" ever.

[Prfx]

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

What's the point of tracking time if somebody can just change it in 2 seconds and pretend to be a 10,000 hours veteran in Doom?

Quint the Alligator Snapper eredeti hozzászólása:

What are people gonna do, screenshot their own Steam client saying they have 10,000 hours in Doom?

I mean I track my playtime so that I would know just for myself that I for example spent 53 hours completing minecraft stoneblock, or that I already spent 91 hour playing zelda:botw, and I know there's even more. Or for example tracking that I've been playing super mario odyssey for 20 hours already, and if I want to complete it 100% there's around 40 more hours of gameplay according to howlongtobeat.com

[Thermal Lance]

Melodia eredeti hozzászólása:

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

What's the point of tracking time if somebody can just change it in 2 seconds and pretend to be a 10,000 hours veteran in Doom?

Ok and....who cares?

Have you ever been around an online gaming community before or are you puposely ignoring the kind of ♥♥♥♥ people do with that?

[Thermal Lance]

Quint the Alligator Snapper eredeti hozzászólása:

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Letting people launch non-steam game costs them nothing as Steam is also a launcher of sort. It's not a feature that is exactly hard to implement plus it adds to the convenience Steam is known for.

The same can be said of playtime tracking, frankly.

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

What's the point of tracking time if somebody can just change it in 2 seconds and pretend to be a 10,000 hours veteran in Doom?

And people can already idle Steam games indefinitely anyway. And that's for Steam games!

It's rather pointless to design around this very particular and very insignificant issue. Playtime for a non-Steam game wouldn't even be used for anything -- especially if it isn't even displayed server-side meaning that it's not even on people's profiles. What are people gonna do, screenshot their own Steam client saying they have 10,000 hours in Doom? That's the most unconvincing "evidence" ever.

Tell me, what are the plus of recording playtime? Too hard to look at a clock on your end or something? It litterally dosent matter and I'd be traumatized if Steam thinks this has enough value to be implement.

Hell, neutral reviews are a better idea and even that I think is a waste of time.

[Melodia]

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Tell me, what are the plus of recording playtime?

Then why does Steam track it for Steam games in the first place if there's no plus to it? It sure isn't for refunds or else they'd simply say "2+ hours" or something (or maybe 'You have passed your allowed refund period" somewhere) -- not to mention they were tracking it long before they implemented the refund system.

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Too hard to look at a clock on your end or something? It litterally dosent matter and I'd be traumatized if Steam thinks this has enough value to be implement.

It clearly has value to a lot of us. Now what percentage of people that is as opposed to those other noted features above, I don't know. But I for one would find plenty of value in it beyond "looking at a clock".

[Thermal Lance]

Melodia eredeti hozzászólása:

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Tell me, what are the plus of recording playtime?

Then why does Steam track it for Steam games in the first place if there's no plus to it? It sure isn't for refunds or else they'd simply say "2+ hours" or something (or maybe 'You have passed your allowed refund period" somewhere) -- not to mention they were tracking it long before they implemented the refund system.

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Too hard to look at a clock on your end or something? It litterally dosent matter and I'd be traumatized if Steam thinks this has enough value to be implement.

It clearly has value to a lot of us. Now what percentage of people that is as opposed to those other noted features above, I don't know. But I for one would find plenty of value in it beyond "looking at a clock".

There is a plus for Steam tracking time on sold games... It's one of the data they use to base the recommendation system on the store. Amongst many other that is. Playtime of games outside their platform is bloody useless to them.

What kind of value it has to an individual? If it wasnt from the recommendation thing id even question why playtime is tracked AT ALL.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

Melodia eredeti hozzászólása:

Ok and....who cares?

Have you ever been around an online gaming community before or are you puposely ignoring the kind of ♥♥♥♥ people do with that?

Why is it even worthy of consideration here? This "problem" is a non-issue. Like I pointed out, what are they gonna do? Screenshot their playtime and use it for an internet ♥♥♥♥-waving contest? Having deterring this as a design priority is pretty much nonsensical.

Thermal Lance eredeti hozzászólása:

What kind of value it has to an individual? If it wasnt from the recommendation thing id even question why playtime is tracked AT ALL.

Okay it really just sounds like you're having trouble comprehending that someone might have different wants just because they think it's a neat thing to have.

[Raging Panda]

Wolf Knight eredeti hozzászólása:

this has been brought up. you should use the Search to find those threads and read up on what was said about why its a pointless idea.

playtime tracking really has no value since people idle games to look like they have more time then they really do. and allowing transfer of time from a non steam version would only make it that much easier to do.

Last time I looked, steam no longer tells you what non steam game someone is playing. scammers would change the name of a game to "Item Verification" and use that to try and look like a member of Steam Support. This ability also would make it possible to have 1000's of hours in a game you dont own before you buy it to try and look "legit" when talking about it on the forums or in game.

not seeing any reason to track something that steam cannot verify is correct and accurate.

It just means something for me, though you should be able to outwardly display it so I can share it with others. I can idle in steam games too. Your argument really makes no sense. Furthermore, the backend for sharing non steam games stuff exists. I can upload screenshots from the desktop (but, oddly enough, not from steam deck via remote play) and it'll even show up under the same name I've given it on my profile. It's pretty funny to see Smash Ultimate Screen shots on my profile. But they are there, go look.